2016 MacBookPros for Gaming

[antonis]

If you are using a Mac, without going through the steps of using Bootcamp, will the MacOS see the Windows install on an external drive and offer it as choice to boot from. If that works (which I am questioning) you'd still have to install the apple drivers.

I've had this setup running for 2 years on a mac pro, there are reliable detailed guides for this (I could find the one I've used if you need it). There's absolutely no involvement of macOS in the procedure, so there's no need for macOS to "see" any drive. Mac's EFI will be able to boot from it as long as your external disk is bootable.

Regarding drivers, you don't really need apple's slacking-updated drivers, but you can still use them if you prefer them (you can just download them on a usb and install them - bootcamp or not doesn't matter for this, anyway). However, I used to install the latest AMD drivers directly from AMD site.

 

[Huntn]

I've had this setup running for 2 years on a mac pro, there are reliable detailed guides for this (I could find the one I've used if you need it). There's absolutely no involvement of macOS in the procedure, so there's no need for macOS to "see" any drive. Mac's EFI will be able to boot from it as long as your external disk is bootable.

Regarding drivers, you don't really need apple's slacking-updated drivers, but you can still use them if you prefer them (you can just download them on a usb and install them - bootcamp or not doesn't matter for this, anyway). However, I used to install the latest AMD drivers directly from AMD site.

I would appreciate a link if it's not too much trouble. I had no idea.
Your saying that if the Mac is hooked up to an external drive formatted to Fat32 or NTFS (does it matter? I'm thinking it does), that pushing down the option key will reveal a bootable external drive? Instead of partitioning my 512 SSD, I'd consider putting the Windows install on an external disk.

The nice thing about Bootcamp is that it walks you through it. Without Bootcamp, I assume you'd have to do this with the external hard drive hooked up to my PC?

What are the requirements of an external Windows formatted bootable external drive?

I most likely will use the Apple drivers just cause they are easy to install. I've gone the route of installing drivers for video cards directly in Windows running on a Mac, but this new Mac does not have a dedicated card, so I'm wondering how important that would be?
Thanks!

 

[antonis]

I would appreciate a link if it's not too much trouble. I had no idea.
Your saying that if the Mac is hooked up to an external drive formatted to Fat32 or NTFS (does it matter? I'm thinking it does), that pushing down the option key will reveal a bootable external drive? Instead of partitioning my 512 SSD, I'd consider putting the Windows install on an external disk.

The nice thing about Bootcamp is that it walks you through it. Without Bootcamp, I assume you'd have to do this with the external hard drive hooked up to my PC?

What are the requirements of an external Windows formatted bootable external drive?

I most likely will use the Apple drivers just cause they are easy to install. I've gone the route of installing drivers for video cards directly in Windows running on a Mac, but this new Mac does not have a dedicated card, so I'm wondering how important that would be?
Thanks!

Absolutely; it will be displayed along your internal disk as "Windows" or something like that, every time you hold the option key pressed. I've used this guide back when I had the Mac Pro using a LaCie thunderbolt ssd external disk. The speed was equal to an internal standard ssd. Windows ran like a charm (although, officially, they would not support installation on an external disk, e.g. on a PC) and I've saved the precious internal storage space.

 

[gkarris]

Absolutely; it will be displayed along your internal disk as "Windows" or something like that, every time you hold the option key pressed. I've used this guide back when I had the Mac Pro using a LaCie thunderbolt ssd external disk. The speed was equal to an internal standard ssd. Windows ran like a charm (although, officially, they would not support installation on an external disk, e.g. on a PC) and I've saved the precious internal storage space.

Gamestop is clearing out their inventory of Alienware Steam Machines this Black Friday, and this video talks about a "Windows to Go" config where you can take any external USB drive and install Windows on it and boot from it without even modifying the original machine.

Can you do this on a Mac too?

 

[Huntn]

Absolutely; it will be displayed along your internal disk as "Windows" or something like that, every time you hold the option key pressed. I've used this guide back when I had the Mac Pro using a LaCie thunderbolt ssd external disk. The speed was equal to an internal standard ssd. Windows ran like a charm (although, officially, they would not support installation on an external disk, e.g. on a PC) and I've saved the precious internal storage space.

So how did you install Windows on an external disk? Was this in concert with a PC?

 

[Huntn]

Update: Looked at this guide and it flat out states a hard drive formatted as NTFS. I remember from the last time I installed Windows via Bootcamp, I had to use Fat32 to make it compatible with interactions from my Mac hardware. Do you know how this is now?

 

[antonis]

According to the guide I've posted, yes, I've used a virtual machine running windows in order to make the preparations for the external hard drive. As I remember it, I didn't have to do anything else outside this guide.
[doublepost=1479963738][/doublepost]

Gamestop is clearing out their inventory of Alienware Steam Machines this Black Friday, and this video talks about a "Windows to Go" config where you can take any external USB drive and install Windows on it and boot from it without even modifying the original machine.

Can you do this on a Mac too?

Well, the point of the guide I've used was to take advantage of the thunderbolt speed and make windows work outside your internal ssd. However, after you have your external drive running windows, there's no real connection to a specific mac. I guess you could hook the external drive on another mac and boot windows on it as well.

 

[MacBH928]

I don't want to open a separate thread on this...

Given the high price, no ports, soldered SSD, lesser battery life, some GPU problems reported by others, long wait, and almost same speed MBP 2016...
I decided to go on with the cheaper 2015 model and wait a year until Apple clears the kinks and offer better specs with the newer designs.

What I want to know is just how much better the Iris 550 over the Iris 6100? I went to userbenchmark.com and it seems that its on average just 20% better. Can some one put that in plain English to me and tell me which generation or year of release this iGPU can run games smoothly? Are we talking PS3 games or worse? How about newer Civs like V and VI?

 

[koyoot]

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-Pro-450.181778.0.html

Radeon 450. Its in performance between GTX 950M and GTX 960M.

These GPU are not stopping to blow my mind. They should not be as fast!

 

[kiwipeso1]

I don't want to open a separate thread on this...

Given the high price, no ports, soldered SSD, lesser battery life, some GPU problems reported by others, long wait, and almost same speed MBP 2016...
I decided to go on with the cheaper 2015 model and wait a year until Apple clears the kinks and offer better specs with the newer designs.

What I want to know is just how much better the Iris 550 over the Iris 6100? I went to userbenchmark.com and it seems that its on average just 20% better. Can some one put that in plain English to me and tell me which generation or year of release this iGPU can run games smoothly? Are we talking PS3 games or worse? How about newer Civs like V and VI?

Civ V will play fine on a MBA 2013 with 8GB. So Iris is only nice to have for Civ:BE , and Civ VI will be best on Iris Pro, but will still play in strategic if you are not quite at "minimum" specs.
Civ VI will run in full retina resolution in full details on the 2016 15" MBPs.

 

[chrisbalo]

Hey guys, do you recommend any gamepad in particular for games on macbook, and if any usb model will work? Never used, but I would like to try it. Thanks.

 

[kiwipeso1]

You'll need a USB C to A (female) adapter if you have the retina macbook or 2016 MBP, but the logitech F310 is the best wired gamepad, the F710 is the wireless version (Logitech unified receiver) & they have a decent joystick the 3D extreme pro (which is a cheap but solid stick for flight and space sims).

Note that these all have switches for either X or D gaming , so you can use them in windows as well as mac.

 

[chrisbalo]

You'll need a USB C to A (female) adapter if you have the retina macbook or 2016 MBP, but the logitech F310 is the best wired gamepad, the F710 is the wireless version (Logitech unified receiver) & they have a decent joystick the 3D extreme pro (which is a cheap but solid stick for flight and space sims).

Note that these all have switches for either X or D gaming , so you can use them in windows as well as mac.

Yes, I got the 2016 MBP. Great, thank you.